April 30, 2020: Lines Written in the Days of Growing Darkness, Mary Oliver
Lines Written in the Days of Growing Darkness Mary Oliver Every year we have been witness to it: how the world descends into a rich mash, in order that it may resume. And therefore who would cry out to the petals on the ground to stay, knowing, as we must, how the vivacity of what was is married to the vitality of what will be? I donât say itâs easy, but what else will do if the love one claims to have for the world be true? So let us go on though the sun be swinging east, and the ponds be cold and black, and the sweets of the year be doomed. == 2019: Starlings in Winter, Mary Oliver 2018: Born Yesterday, Philip Larkin 2017: Thus, He Spoke His Quietus, Thomas Lux 2016: Trees, W.S. Merwin 2015: Today and Two Thousand Years from Now, Philip Levine 2014: from For a Long Time I Have Wanted to Write a Happy Poem, Richard Jackson 2013: Tear It Down, Jack Gilbert 2012: from An Atlas of the Difficult World, Adrienne Rich 2011: Wandering Around an Albuquerque Airport Terminal, Naomi Shihab Nye 2010: from Pioneers! O Pioneers!, Walt Whitman 2009: from The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot 2008: from Five-Finger Exercises, T.S. Eliot 2007: Journey of the Magi, T.S. Eliot 2006: Preludes, T.S. Eliot 2005: A Song for Simeon, T.S. Eliot Dear friends, thank you for letting me mark these days of strangeness and uncertainty by sharing words with you; having a focus is good, it turns out. Things that bring comfort or distraction seem more important than ever, so here are some of my best and favorite sources of poetry, in a range of mediums, for the other eleven months of the year. (Now you will know all my secrets!)Â
- The Slowdown podcast shares one poem every episode (& is hosted by Tracy K. Smith!) - Pome tinyletter email by Matthew Ogle - poetryisnotaluxury, if Instagram is your timewaster of choice - Finally, if you can, order some poetry from your nearest independent bookstore; they could really really use your support. Wishing you so well, Martha














